I've been looking for something better and easier to use than CamStudio and Fraps for years and I finally found it. I spent a couple of hours searching again last night and I saw it mentioned in the comments on the page below:

Want to know the name of this amazing program for Windows PC owners (that seems to flawlessly record video and sound)? Not so fast, pal. I need some compensation for my hard work at the Google grindstone. Just send 5 dollars to . . . just kidding. Here it is:

Bandicam is the best screen/game recording software I have ever tried (I don't have a Mac and I don't use Linux). It really does seem to have less lag (as they claim on their main page). When I start recording with other programs, there is a noticeable, jarring slow down, but not with Bandicam.

The program makes it very clear what you are going to record. There is no irritating flashing rectangle around the area you're recording and you can easily disable the FPS overlay (under the FPS Tab), so you can record a game you're playing without any irritating distractions.

Unlike some other programs, you won't have to spend time just trying to find the record button. There are no mysteries or weird, complicated problems. It just works.

Camtasia always worked fine, only get lag on multi-screen extra large captures from MAME otherwise stuff like 320x200 is a piece of piss. My only problem with Camtasia is the issue of recording sound but this comes down to the drivers for your computer NOT Camtasia so unless this thing doesn't need to use drivers from the OS or is supplied with a billion driver files I'm good to go as it is myself

Camtasia always worked fine, only get lag on multi-screen extra large captures from MAME otherwise stuff like 320x200 is a piece of piss. My only problem with Camtasia is the issue of recording sound but this comes down to the drivers for your computer NOT Camtasia so unless this thing doesn't need to use drivers from the OS or is supplied with a billion driver files I'm good to go as it is myself

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your post, but it seems like you are confusing CamStudio (freeware) withCamtasia (30 day free trial).